WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0marked Christmas Eve by quizzing children calling in about what presents they were excited about receiving, while promising to not let a \u201cbad Santa\u201d infiltrate the country and even suggesting that a stocking full of coal may not be so bad.<\/p>\n
Vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in\u00a0Florida, the president and first lady Melania Trump participated in the tradition of\u00a0talking to youngsters\u00a0dialing into the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which playfully\u00a0tracks Santa’s progress around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that Santa is being good. Santa\u2019s a very good person,” Trump said while speaking to kids ages 4 and 10 in\u00a0Oklahoma. \u201cWe want to make sure that he\u2019s not infiltrated, that we\u2019re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn’t elaborate.<\/p>\n
Trump has often marked Christmases past with criticisms of his political enemies, including in 2024, when he posted, \u201cMerry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics.\u201d During his first term, Trump\u00a0wrote online\u00a0early on Dec. 24, 2017, targeting a top FBI official he believed was biased against him, as well as the news media.<\/p>\n
Shortly after wrapping up Wednesday’s Christmas Eve calls, in fact, he returned to that theme, posting: \u201cMerry Christmas to all, including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country, but are failing badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Trump was in a jovial mood while talking with the kids. He even said at one point that he \u201ccould do this all day long\u201d but likely would have to get back to more pressing matters like efforts to quell the fighting in\u00a0Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
When an 8-year-old from\u00a0North Carolina, asked if Santa would be mad if no one leaves cookies out for him, Trump said he didn’t think so, \u201cBut I think he\u2019ll be very disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, Santa\u2019s \u2014 he tends to be a little bit on the cherubic side. You know what cherubic means? A little on the heavy side,\u201d Trump joked. \u201cI think Santa would like some cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president and first lady Melania Trump sat side-by-side and took about a dozen calls between them. At one point, while his wife was on the phone and Trump was waiting to be connected to another call, he noted how little attention she was paying to him: \u201cShe\u2019s able to focus totally, without listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by an 8-year-old girl in Kansas what she’d like Santa to bring, the answer came back, \u201cUh, not coal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean clean, beautiful coal?” Trump replied, evoking a favored campaign slogan he’s long used when promising to revive domestic coal production.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to do that, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d the president added, laughing and even causing the first lady, who was on a separate call, to turn toward him and grin.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoal is clean and beautiful. Please remember that, at all costs,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut you don\u2019t want clean, beautiful coal, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d the caller responded, saying she’d prefer a Barbie doll, clothes and candy.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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